The 22nd annual Rolling in Rock Hill event positively impacted several Rock Hill homeowners, including Jo and Jesse Davis. The couple, as well as several local volunteers, share their feelings on what the event means to them.

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The 22nd annual Rolling in Rock Hill event positively impacted several Rock Hill homeowners, including Jo and Jesse Davis. The couple, as well as several local volunteers, share their feelings on what the event means to them.

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ROCK HILL

When Jo and Jesse Davis pray a lot, they say miracles happen.

The latest miracle came in human form Saturday morning.

Eight volunteers with St. Mary’s Catholic Church flocked to the Davis home on Albert Street in Rock Hill to paint, caulk, clean and beautify the home of a kind-hearted elderly couple who needed the help. The effort is part of the city’s 22nd annual Rolling in Rock Hill Paint Day.

Jo isn’t as mobile as she’d like to be after a stroke more than four years ago. Jesse recently received two stents in his heart to help keep his arteries open.

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“When you get our age,” said Jo, “you can no longer do the work yourselves, so every little bit helps.”

That’s where Gabrielle Blum, with St. Mary’s, stepped in. Jo has attended the church for over 50 years. Blum, the church’s director of youth and young adult ministry, said she wanted to show the Davises “love and support.” The group gathered six gallons of paint, 20 brushes, five containers of caulk and bags of snacks before getting to work on the home early Saturday morning.

Thirty teams of more than 400 volunteers from city government, churches, businesses, fraternities, sororities and civic organizations teamed up Saturday to paint 17 homes of those who are elderly, low-income or disabled. Ten other houses had been previously painted earlier this week.

“We need to help each other,” said Blum. “We are our brother’s keeper, and to be able to come out and do something for somebody who isn’t able to do it physically, it’s a good effort to help.”

Three teenagers who volunteered Saturday also attend the church. They were all former students in Jo Davis’ religious education class.

The help doesn’t go unappreciated. The couple says they’re facing daunting medical bills as a result of Jesse’s recent operation and subsequent stay in the hospital.

Watching the busy work of dedicated volunteers made their hearts glad.

“It’s a blessing to have the program that comes out and helps us out like that,” he said.

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